Early Career Interviewing at Tomo

While many companies shy away from hiring “non-senior” engineers, we relish the opportunity to find the right people and help them grow into future leaders of Tomo Engineering.

Since we truly believe we’re hiring future leaders at Tomo, we have a duty to be thorough during the interview process to make sure we’re making the right long term decision for our company. Restated simply: we view these hires to be just as important as any other hire we make (if not more so).

Market Realities

Anyone trying to break into the tech field will tell you that it can be a difficult and frustrating process. Despite the need for technical talent, many companies are hesitant to hire candidates without professional experience. When combining that with greater efforts to increase people entering the industry from colleges, bootcamps, self-taught resources, etc, it’s created an environment where (currently) there are a surplus of “non-senior” candidates for every available position.

We frequently see far more inbound applications for “entry level” positions than we see for experienced hires. While this is a great benefit for Tomo (we get to pick from many qualified and great candidates), it can make it difficult for candidates to experience success in the process.

How to set yourself up for success at Tomo

Because of our high bar, and deep care for the process, we thought it would be helpful to provide some insights into how to stand out from the crowd in the interview process. We want you to do your best and have a positive experience no matter the ultimate outcome. Below are areas to focus on to prepare for the interview.

Technical Foundations

We don’t have required degrees, years of technical experience, or certifications in our job requirements. While all of those things help, they aren’t deal breakers. We really LOVE candidates that come from non-traditional backgrounds, and view those different perspectives as a strength rather than a weakness.

However, we are an engineering organization with world class engineers. Candidates with strong technical foundations, and the ability to demonstrate that foundation, tend to be more successful.

This list is not exhaustive, and is not a checklist, but can be helpful in understanding if you are prepared to interview.

An understanding of computational complexity. You don’t need to be able to speak Big O as a second language, but you should understand the basic concepts. For loops are powerful; for loops in for loops in for loops can be very bad! When you have the chance to code for us, we’ll want to see examples of you thinking about avoiding unnecessary computational complexity.
A familiarity with the ecosystem of your skill set. Typically, this means understanding basic git, packages, frameworks, etc. For example: if you’re a front-end focused dev you should know about git, npm, react (or other framework), css or component libraries, ETC. You don’t need to be a master of the entire ecosystem, but showing awareness will go a long way.
An understanding of how complex systems work. Sometimes, we see candidates that only have exposure/awareness to a very small portion of full technical solutions. While that is a great starting point, to stand out, candidates who can demonstrate they are aware of how parts of a complex system work together will be more successful.

We have an interview as part of our process that will ask you to explain, in as much depth as you can, a system you’ve worked on or are familiar with. Again, we don’t expect you to be an expert in all areas, but understanding at least on a high level what the parts are and how they work together is important.

Demonstrate a solid technical foundation of at least one programming language. While we’ll invest in your growth and mastery of the languages we use at Tomo, we expect candidates to be proficient in at least one language to get started. If you’re able to demonstrate that you know more than the absolute basics, you’ll stand out. That may mean being able to show in code more advanced understanding, or even communicating about the tradeoffs of the solutions you provide to us.

Communication Skills

We place a great amount of value on communication skills across the team. We want to have great relationships, as individuals and teams, and that requires us to all be strong communicators. As our work is of a technical nature, we need to be able to communicate efficiently about technical concepts.

Be able to explain your solutions. This may sound simple and easily understood, but you’d be surprised how often candidates struggle to walk us through their own code. You should understand this code, and be able to verbally teach us as well. Again, this doesn’t mean having all the answers, but it should mean that you’re able to talk us through what your code does and what your thinking was when writing it.
We don’t expect candidates to know everything (at any level), so be candid about communicating when you’ve reached the edges of your understanding. Venture guesses, show your instincts, but also be honest and open. If nothing else, you may learn something valuable from us in the process.

Growth Trajectory (and mindset)

As we expect our less-experienced hires to grow into the leaders of tomorrow, we try to find signals that candidates are the type of person who will grow quickly. This admittedly can be a hard thing to prepare for, but it will likely be to your advantage to find ways to show us that you’re on a strong growth trajectory.

Do you learn quickly? Great! Many people say this, can you show us? Can you demonstrate your ability to learn quickly through storytelling, demoes, examples, during the interview process? Please do!
Sometimes we speak with candidates who feel “stuck” in their current position, that they’ve spent years growing in “bad soil”. That’s a situation we have a great amount of empathy for (do yourself a favor and find better soil!), but at the same time, this can make it difficult to demonstrate your trajectory. Do some thinking about how you can demonstrate your growth mindset and track record despite your circumstances.
Important to note here, we get that people are often in very different situations in life (and we love that). We don’t expect people to code in the evenings all the time (not everyone has that capability), or eat-breath-and-sleep code. Don’t have a 1,000 day commit streak on github? That’s fine!

We like to work with passionate people, but we also are all human with different experiences. Tell your story. Your growth may be slow over the years, but actually really fast for the total amount of hours you’ve been able to actually spend developing your skills. We are willing and ready to empathize with you. Find ways to show us your upside. Sometimes just being able to talk about where you want to go in your career, and how you imagine we can help you get there, can go a long way.

Tomo Values

Our culture is everything to us at Tomo. We have a huge amount of ambition as a company, but we also have just as high ambitions about how we want to achieve that success. Our values are central to everything we do, and it’s important we find candidates who are willing to embrace our values. We have a specific interview for just this!

Omotenashi: We anticipate customer needs and satisfy them without being asked. As engineers we anticipate each other’s needs and strive to meet them before our teammates even realize it.
Shake-it-up: Revolutionary Spirit + Rapid Experimentation + Nimble Decision Making + Big Stuff = Giant Leaps Forward. As engineers we challenge the status-quo. We don’t do things just because “that’s the way things are done”.
G.O.A.T: We are committed to our culture of performance, candor and accountability. As Engineers we want to be the greatest of all teams, and we do that by being the greatest of all teammates.
Start with Zero: We bring the urgency of starting at zero, every day, to the things that matter most. We approach every day new, past success doesn’t satisfy us.

Find ways to show that you share these values, or will thrive in an environment where they are lived. If our values align, and you have the technical foundations, communication skills, and a strong growth trajectory, you’re going to do great!

Be You!

Ultimately, we’re people, trying to be better people all the time. We’re not all that interested in finding people who are exactly like us, we want to share values, but we want as many different perspectives/backgrounds/experiences as we can collect. Everyone deserves the opportunity of home ownership, and to meet such a diverse customer base (everyone), we need the authentic you. Bring what makes you unique, and help us grow.

Be prepared, be confident, and be you.